Since June 7, the professor and conceptual artist has used Etsy to sell bizarre juxtapositions of everyday objects as a commentary on … well, we’re not sure. But where we’re confused, others are completely in on the joke. The shop has gotten mentions from Gawker and the Huffington Post, and some of the items are going viral on Tumblr with more than 7,000 notes.

“Yummy the perfect two chair decoration can finally be yours for a historically low price of $25.
You're going to want to educate your grandchildren and give this to them when you enter your twilight years so that they too may one day give the gift of chair decor to their offspring.”

We had to ask: is this some kind of joke? In return, the artist offered us another creation—in the form of his responses. We’re not ones to tamper with works of art, so we’ve left his answers uncut below.

Daily Dot:Your products seem incredibly useless, but you've made 52 sales. Have you gotten in touch with any of your customers to see why they bought these things from you? If not, could you speculate?

“BSTJ Voluptuous Victory (within prideful reflection) Interview [hosted by Ty---- Ch---] (2012) Hey Lauren first I’d like to thank you and everyone at Etsy for making this organic little experiment such a wild success. [Fumbles with e-cigarette, puts it out in a fruit cocktail nonchalantly with style and comfort easily] With the sweat of my brow I’ve turned a little dream nestled in my bosom into a global empire of unprecedented scale, environmental sustainability, and quality. [Looks over shoulder, someone deletes their own Facebook comment in some thread hurriedly because they get worried how it will look “that post has a lot of likes so you don’t want to be too public on this one” he thinks to himself] A little business secret I’ve kept to myself is that I believe in a credo of (e)quality: this has a triple meaning so be very careful: (1) it references Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or e-comm, is the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. [Laughter] Electronic commerce draws on such technologies as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall" [Flawless delivery from a zone of confidence]

E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters)

Business-to-business buying and selling

The security of business transactions

(2) Equality Across America (3) Quality in business, engineering [Polite and sincere laughter] and manufacturing has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something; it is also defined as fitness for purpose. Quality is a perceptual, [Flawless accent doubly] conditional and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly. Support personnel may measure quality in the degree that a product is reliable, maintainable, or sustainable.

Checking - confirming that [Laughter] something has been done correctly.

Quality Control - controlling a process to ensure that the outcomes are predictable.

Quality Management – directing an organisation so that it optimises its performance through analysis and improvement.

Quality Assurance – obtaining confidence that a product or service will be satisfactory. (Normally performed by a purchaser)”

DD: I discovered you (extremely late) through Tumblr where you seem to be a viral hit among the network's young crowd. What do you think about the way your items resonate with youth culture, especially since the Huffington Post suggested your art makes fun of youth culture?

“I’ve decided to let you and the people at home figure out how to get from an art gallery to a shop! [Interviewer Lauren Orsini gives standing applause, everyone at home immediately downloads and prints out maze and completes them with varying degrees of success, e-mailing friends and close family for cheat codes and passwords]”

DD: How does your shop make a statement about Etsy and the general state of selling handmade items online?

“We agreed not to talk about this, Lauren. [Daily Dot and Troemel agents speak with each other tersely. Interviewer Lauren Orsini gets out of seat and puts hands on hips defiant: “OK, have it your way. I’ll be your journalistic poodle, your Nancy Drew – NO! I refuse. Mr. Troemel, I’m here to ask the tough questions and you’re not getting out of this. Now I’ll ask one more time, How does your shop make a statement about Etsy and the general nation state of selling handmade items online?” [Troemel sips organic whiskey on the rocks, looks up in recognition of virtue] Ha, OK, I had a feeling it would come to this. I knew you weren’t going to resist a juicy little caboose of gossip like this. The truth is I’m a paid employee of Etsy. I’m what’s called a confidential brand operative. My BSTJ project has been paid for by Etsy as a viral marketing campaign. Their intention was for Post Internet artists to look more positively at their service. [Crowd erupts in cheers and hysterical shrieks of happiness. People hold up signs saying things like “Thanks for the honesty!” “I ALWAYS <3’d Etsy!” “Allegiance/Love/Force (A.L.F. For Brad)”. Much prosperity befalls participants] This is my first conceptual marketing work for a company and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned [slow motion] out so far.”*

*Editor’s note: An Etsy spokesperson denied this claim.

DD:What feedback have you gotten on your shop from other people? Other artists? Your students? Any hate mail?

“100% positive across the board. [Cool concert hall: Having fun so often, everyone knows the words, size Small tank top crashes to the floor, everyone looks down: The tank top stands up, gets caught in a tall bike, the person falls over and mediocrely injured. The commercial is over and everyone goes back to the concert. That was 1969, this is 2012. Things like this happen everyday, beauty is found in unforeseen locations. Crowd resumes dancing with the fears of millions]”

Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated Troemel is a professor at NYU. He is a professor, but not at that school. Troemel preferred not to say where he currently teaches.